Objective Imagine, Elaborate, Predict and Confirm (TEPC) To encourage students to use visual imagery as a means of enriching their understanding of information which is viewed, listened to or read. Rationale/Description: IEPC is a strategy to help students increase their understanding and recall by using visual imagery to predict events in a selection. Tt begins by modeling for students how to imagine a scene, add details and then use their thinking to predict a possible story line. After reading, students return to confirm or disconfirm their original predictions. ‘The specific components of TEPC are: > Imagine: Close your eyes and try to imagine the scene. Share your thinking with a partner and the whole class. > Elaborate: Think of details surrounding the scene in your head. How do you think the characters feel? What are similar experiences? Describe the scene. What do you sce, feel, hear, smell? > Predict: Use what you have imagined in your head to predict what might happen in the story (characters, events, setting, etc.) > Confirm: During and after reading the selection, think about your original predictions. Were they true, false or were they not explained in the passage. Modify your predictions to coordinate with the actual selection. Intended for: Elementary, middle, secondary. Procedures: Modeling Phase Step One: Decide upon an appropriate tradebook, basal selection or passage with content appropriate for developing imagery. Step Two: Display the IEPC blank form on the overhead projector and tell the students that they are going to engage in a strategy designed to encourage them to use their imaginations to create pictures of what they see in their mind, ‘Tell them that making pictures or images before, during and after reading will help them understand and remember what they read, Step Three: Use the transparency to point out and explain the four phases of TEPC using language appropriate to their ability levels. Prereading Stage Step Four: Tell the students that they are going to read/hear a selection. Begin with the imagine phase and ask the students to join you in closing their eyes and aimagining everything they can about the selection to be read. This may be based upon the cover of a book, a title or a topic. Encourage the students to use sensory experiences by imagining feelings, taste, smell, sight and surroundings. Step Five: Talk aloud your thinking and then ask the class if they have anything to add. Write the responses in the “I” column on the form, Step Six: Model for the students how to use their visual images and add details, anecdotes, prior experiences, sensory information, ete. and jot this information in the “E” column. Step Seven: Talk aloud at least one sample prediction, based upon prior visual ‘images and encourage the students to do the same. Write these responses in the “P” column. Reading Stage Step Eight: Have students read/listen to the selection(or segment) with these predictions in mind. Postreading Stage Step Nine: After reading, return to the transparency and, using a different color marker, modify the original predictions to coordination with the newly learned information. Wood, K. D. & Dowville, P. (1999) Imagine, Elaborate, Predict and Confirm (IEPC): Using visual imagery to enhance comprehension, Presentation for the National Reading Conference. Orlando, Florida.Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, and Confirm (IEPC) Sample student responses before and after reading A Snake in the House, by Faith McNulty (illustrated by Ted Rand). I E P c The Snake is slimy, | The snake's scales | The snake and the | The snake and it slithers and | ore slimy, and its | cat will fight, and | searches the house flicks its tongue. | dark cold eyes the snake will bite | for food and a way stare at me. the cat in the neck, | to escape. T feel nervous and scared The snake is Someone will catch | The cat tries to crawling through | the snake and take | catch the snake, Tssee the snake | the house, andI | it outside, but the snake gets moving quickly am afraid it will away. across the floor. bite me. The snake slithers quickly across the floor as it searches for something to eat. The snake crawls into a basket and the boy carries it outside. Finally, the boy grabs the snake and sets it free. The snake felt warm, dry, and alive. It hasa powerful body. Tt crawls quickly through the grass toward its home.